In other words, sliding glass doors can force your heating and cooling system to work harder to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home. These doors are beautiful and functional, but they are also a major source of heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Insulating attachments such as cellular shades, when closed for the night in winter or on sunny days in summer, are also a good idea.Many homes are designed with sliding glass doors overlooking their backyard, garden, pool or patio. Adding one to a new, multi-glazed low-e door is seldom economic. Storm doors for patio doors are hard to find, but they are available. Check the door manufacturer's recommendations if this is a concern. All of these features add convenience and cost.Ī glass storm door could trap heat against an entry door and cause damage if the exterior door gets more than a few hours of direct sun each day. Other features may include screens with self-storing pockets, full-length screens with removable glass panels, and screens and glass that slide past each other. High-quality storm doors use low-emissivity (low-e) glass or glazing to increase energy efficiency. Metal-framed storm doors might have foam insulation inside their frames for added strength. Wooden storm doors require more maintenance than the other types. Storm door frames are usually made of aluminum, steel, fiberglass, or wood (painted or not). If you plan to purchase a storm door, consider features that improve the energy efficiency. However, adding a storm door to a newer, insulated door is not generally worth the expense, because you won't save much more energy. If the manufacturer has made it possible to do so, you can replace worn weatherstripping on sliding glass doors.Īdding a storm door can be a good investment if your existing door is old but still in good condition.
In addition, after years of use the weatherstripping wears down, so air leakage increases as the door ages. It's impossible to stop all the air leakage around the weatherstripping on a sliding glass door and still be able to use the door. Look at NFRC labels to find air leakage ratings. A door with one fixed panel will have less air leakage than a door with two operating panels. Most modern glass doors with metal frames have a thermal break, which is a plastic insulator between inner and outer parts of the frame. When buying or replacing patio doors, swinging doors generally offer a tighter seal than sliding types. Models with several layers of glass, low-emissivity coatings, and/or low-conductivity gases between the glass panes are a good investment. Single-pane glass or "patio" doors, especially sliding glass doors, lose much more heat than other types of doors because glass is a very poor insulator. For example, a 1-1/2 inch (3.81 cm) thick door without a window offers more than five times the insulating value of a solid wood door of the same size. The R-values of most steel and fiberglass-clad entry doors range from R-5 to R-6, excluding a window. If installed correctly and not bent, this type of door needs no further weatherstripping. It usually includes a magnetic strip (similar to a refrigerator door magnetic seal) as weatherstripping.
#Glass door encore energy skin#
One common type of exterior door has a steel skin with a polyurethane foam insulation core. The lower the U-factor, the better the door keeps in heat. SHGC measures how well a product keeps out solar heat. Look for a low SHGC in a climate that mainly requires cooling and a high SHGC in a climate that requires heating. The label shows the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) and U-factor for the door. Learn more about the NFRC label. The National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) label helps you compare energy performance ratings of doors. This will help narrow your selection. Look for the ENERGY STAR label to help identify energy efficient products for your climate.
When selecting doors for energy efficiency, it's important to first consider their energy performance ratings in relation to the local climate and your home's design. If you're building a new home, you should consider buying the most energy-efficient doors possible.
If you have older doors in your home, replacing them might be a good investment, resulting in lower heating and cooling costs. New exterior doors often fit and insulate better than older types.
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